Who is Deshun Wang?

Deshun (sometimes spelled Dushun) Wang is an 80 year old Chinese actor. You can listen to his short bio on YouTube here. (disregard the Arabic, it was the only video I could find to embed here.)

You can follow along with the transcript below.

Using the video to practice listening to Chinese

While there is English captioned underneath, I, of course, saw it as an opportunity to practice my Chinese listening skills and enhance my vocabulary. My tutor reviewed it with me a while ago.

This time, I listened to it while attempting to type what I could understand. It was a good exercise, but I did need my tutor to fill in a bit over half of the vocabulary. As I said, the end result is shown below.

Learning some specific vocabulary first

But before I get into the full transcript, I am going to list some of the specific vocabulary. Some of it is related to the subject of acting/modeling. Some of it has a broader conversational potential.

一 場

ˋ ㄔㄤˇ

(yì chǎng)

here it is a measure word for an event or show or time when a movie shows, but it can also mean a large place used for a specific purpose, a stage

T台

“T”ㄊㄞˊ

“T” tái

This probably means “catwalk” in this context (in Taiwan it means “TV station”)

rely on, pretext + mouth, entrance = to use as an excuse, on the pretext

阻止

ㄗㄨˇ ㄓˇ

(zǔ zhǐ)

to prevent, to block

成功

ㄔㄥˊ ㄍㄨㄥ

(chéng gōng)

success, to succeed

除 了

ㄔㄨˊ ㄌㄜ˙

(chú le.)

except

該

ㄍㄞ

(gāi)

should, must

應該

ㄧㄥ ㄐㄍㄞ

(yīng gāi)

should, must

炫

ㄒㄩㄢˋ

(xuàn)

to dazzle, to boast, to show off, to flaunt (bright and dazzling)

千萬

ㄑㄧㄢ ㄨㄢˋ

(qiān wàn)

ten million, countless, many, all the possibility, to be sure to do so

手軟

ㄕㄡˇ ㄖㄨㄢˇ

(shǒu ruǎn)

to relent, to bereluctant to make a hard decision, to think twice

The video’s Chinese transcript

In my podcast audio, you can hear a slower, more enunciated reading of the transcript by my tutor, as well as a reading of the above vocabulary. To help you keep track of what you are listening to in the original video, I have shown the time when the various sentences are begun. (There is probably a commercial first)

1:39 千萬不要對自己手軟。

(千萬)(不)(要)(對)(自己)(手軟)❻

(ten million, countless, by all means, never ever)(not)(to want)(toward)(oneself)(hand + soft = to relent, to be lenient, be reluctant)

you never want to be to lenient with yourself.

1:42 我是王德順。

(我)(是)(王德順)

(ㄨㄛˇ)(ㄕˋ)(ㄨㄤˊ ㄉㄜˊ ㄕㄨㄣˋ)

(wǒ)(shì)(Wáng Dé Shùn)

(I)(to be, am)(Wang Deshun)

I am Wang Deshun.

1:45 我是最炫東北人！

(我)(是)(最)(炫)(東北)❼(人)

(ㄨㄛˇ)(ㄕˋ)(ㄗㄨㄟˋ)(ㄒㄩㄢˋ)(ㄉㄨㄥ ㄅㄟˇ)(ㄖㄣˊ)

(wǒ)(shì)(zuì)(xuàn)(dōng běi)(rén)

(I)(am)(most)(to dazzle, cool, awesome)(east north)(person)

I am a dazzling Northeasterner!

結束

ㄐㄧㄝˊ ㄕㄨˋ

jié shù

The end

Notes:

❶ As always, in the Chinese, the last, or surname, is spoken first. The characters for the name do have meaning. His first name 德順 is the combination of characters which in order mean virtue and obey. His last name 王 is a common one, meaning best or strongest of its type, grand, or king.

❷ The order of these characters can be reversed to 道道地地 and still mean the same thing. However, if only single characters are used in the original order he used (地道), it is commonly understood to mean tunnel. 道地 in single characters is the more usual way to say authentic or really from that part of the earth.

❹ 北京 is the more modern, political name of the city. The characters mean north and capitol. 北平 is the original and traditional name of the city. Although the first character is the same, the second one means flat, level, peaceful. Many people refer to themselves using the original name 北平.

❺ He may be speaking in terms of showmanship here, but it is broadly applicable, because everyone must in some way sell their abilities to others in the marketplace.

❻ The idea here is that if you are holding your hand loosely, you will not grasp opportunity.

❼ Mandarin Chinese originates from this region of China, from after Manchurians came to rule as Qing Dynasty. As you can see from the map, his city of birth is in that region.

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